Molecules of biological systems, such as, for example, nucleic acids, have the potential of serving as building blocks for the construction of new biological materials (or biomaterials), including individual geometrical objects, nanomechanical devices, and extended constructions that permit the fabrication of intricate structures of materials to serve many practical purposes, such as, e.g., pathogen detection and delivery of biologically active agents. This is at least in part due to their self and programmable-assembly capabilities.
Deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”) and ribonucleic acid (“RNA”) nucleic acid molecules possess distinct mechanical, physical, and chemical properties. From a mechanical point of view, DNA molecules can be rigid (e.g., when the molecules are less than 50 nm, the persistent length of double stranded DNA), or flexible. Physically, DNA is small, with a width of about 2 nanometers and a length of about 0.34 nanometers per base pair (for B-DNA). DNA can have various shapes, such as linear and circular shapes. Chemically, DNA is generally stable, non-toxic, water soluble, and commercially available in large quantities and high purity. Moreover, DNA molecules can be easily and highly manipulated by various well-known enzymes, such as restriction enzymes and ligases.
Under proper conditions, DNA and RNA molecules can self-assemble with complementary strands of nucleic acid (e.g., DNA, RNA, or Peptide Nucleic Acid, (PNA)), proteins or peptides. DNA molecules can be amplified exponentially and ligated specifically. Thus, DNA (and RNA) is an excellent candidate for constructing nano-material.
The ability to attach different functional moieties to a molecular building block can lead to applications in various fields. Multiple functionalities can be obtained by assembling different moieties onto a core building block leading to applications in nanoelectronics, intelligent sensing, and drug delivery. The combined functionalities can be synergistic.
To attach different moieties onto a building block, the core block is typically multivalent, anisotropic, or both multivalent and anisotropic. Although many anisotropic building blocks have been created, there lacks a universal anisotropic building block. A core block that is both multivalent and anisotropic can increase the precision of attaching different moieties onto a building block.
DNA has been used to generate various nano-structures. In addition, DNA has been used as a general building block material. Still, there exists a need for building blocks that can be used to build nano-structures with increased precision to create structures that are multifunctional, and in some embodiments, synergistically multifunctional.